Questions tagged [science]

9 questions
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Did al-Ghazali lead to decline of science in Islam as Neil Tyson claims?

The astrophysicist Neil deGrasse Tyson has said that during the Islamic Golden Age, especially in Baghdad, science and discovery flourished for a few centuries. Then an Islamic scholar named al-Ghazali became prominent, whose ideas took root. Among…
Zebrafish
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Is the Gregorian calendar the "most accurate calendar ever devised"?

This statement comes from a Joe Rogan show episode where he chats to Neil de Grasse Tyson. His statement is about the Gregorian calendar, and goes as follows: "Point is, this was hard-earned, and the whole world uses this calendar, it is the most…
Zebrafish
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Can one estimate accurately the time until sunset using the width of one's fingers?

I've now heard from a friend and read about a claim online, which I find unlikely: You can estimate the time until the sun sets by using your fingers. By extending your arm fully and placing your hand above the horizon, you can count the number of…
PenumbraBrah
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Did some people claim in the 1970s that metric road signs would facilitate a ‘Russian invasion’?

According to Why Hasn't the U.S. Gone Metric?: In the 1970s, some opponents suggested that metric road signs would facilitate a Russian invasion. This ("... some opponents suggested...") sounds very likely, but it's true? The exhaustive report A…
7
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Is gender studies a science?

A dailywire article quoting an "hungarian political magazine" article writes: ...Hungary, as the country’s government has decided to remove gender studies programs from state-run universities. A government official said the programs are based on…
7
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Can you extract over 500 gallons of water from the air a day for a few cents per bottle?

According to the Daily Mail article LA couple win $1.5 million XPrize for radical system that can make clean water from AIR for less than 2 cents a quart, David Hertz and Laura Doss-Hertz have developed a machine that can extract over 500 gallons of…
GordonM
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Did Xóchitl Lopez invent a water heater?

Various news stories have said that Xóchitl Guadalupe Cruz López, an eight-year-old girl living in Chiapas, Mexico, invented an inexpensive water heater made of recycled materials. At just 8 years old, Xóchitl Guadalupe Cruz has invented a device…
Obie 2.0
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Is Intelligent Design falsifiable?

In an article titled Intelligent Design is Falsifiable, the Discovery Institute claims: There is a belief among media commentators that intelligent design is unscientific because it is unfalsifiable or untestable: no empirical evidence can count…
Mark
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Has Newton's Third Law of motion been "debunked" and are there discrepancies in formulas of variation of mass with velocity?

An Indian "scientist" who is called Ajay Sharma, allegedly found proof that Newton's Third Law of motion isn't applicable to every situation, and therefore it's declared false, or at least it's in a need of reconstruction. The author alleges that…